ARIELLE HINES/NEWS-REVIEWFernanda Dau Fisher (left) and Petoskey Mayor John Murphy stand next to an Ernest Hemingway statue. Fisher’s late father, Robert Jensen Dau, offered to fund the statue and donate it to the city.

Hemingway statue unveiled in Petoskey

Arielle Hines/News-ReviewThis Ernest Hemingway statue is now on display in downtown Petoskey.

ARIELLE HINES/NEWS-REVIEWFernanda Dau Fisher (left) and Petoskey Mayor John Murphy stand next to an Ernest Hemingway statue. Fisher’s late father, Robert Jensen Dau, offered to fund the statue and donate it to the city.

PETOSKEY - Scores of people came to downtown Petoskey Friday to see the unveiling of a statue of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway as a young man.

The Nobel Prize winning author was born on July 21, 1899, and died on July 2, 1961. Hemingway spent his first 22 summers of his life in the Petoskey area. He married his first wife in Horton Bay in 1921. Hemingway’s first published fiction included a group of short stories, which featured the character “Nick Adams,” who has adventures in Northern Michigan.

Petoskey Mayor John Murphy declared July 21, 2017, the author’s birthday, as “Young Ernest Hemingway Day” at the last city council meeting on July 17.

“He suffered life threatening injuries in World War I, and he came back to Petoskey to recuperate,” said Murphy at the statue dedication. “It was at that time he identified the opportunities in his talents.”

Hemingway became known for works as “The Old Man and the Sea,” “The Sun Also Rises” and “A Farewell to Arms.”

Robert Jensen Dau, who died in 2015, agreed to commission and fund the statue. City officials considered several locations before ultimately picking a site in Pennsylvania Park just south of Lake Street.

The late donor’s daughter, Fernanda Dau Fisher, said to the crowd she was “thrilled and sad” about the unveiling of the statue. She said the statue project wasn’t finalized before her father’s passing.

“I know he (Robert Jensen Dau) is looking down, and he is very anxious to have that white sheet pulled off that statue,” Fisher said.

Andy Sacksteder, the artist who created the sculpture, said he learned about Hemingway’s young adulthood while doing the project.

“My hope is that viewers’ curiosity will draw them to the statue, first of all, and then to learning more about young Ernest and his ties to the beautiful region around Petoskey,” Sacksteder wrote in his artist statement.

Fisher said her father never met Sacksteder, but she knows he would have loved him.

The statue is based on a photograph of Hemingway taken in January 1920 in Petoskey. He was preparing to depart the town for a job in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Fisher said the suitcase in the Hemingway statue was based on her father’s suitcase.

“He (her father) is going to be part of this for the rest of his years. Thank you, Ernest,” Fisher said while looking at the statue.

Fisher shared one other thought about the statue.

“If you see the actual picture this sculpture is done through, those who knew Ernest knew he liked to drink,” Fisher said. “I requested a book be put in his pocket, but it’s actually supposed to be a little flask.”